Pre-E3 2005: Condemned: Hands-on

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Step into the mind of a serial killer. First in-game video footage and impressions.

By Douglass C. Perry

Known for a multitude of atypical first-person shooters and progressive technology on PC, Monolith Productions has embarked on a journey into the psychological folds and disturbing eccentricities of the mind of a serial killer in Condemned, its forthcoming character-driven action-adventure game due on Microsoft's Xbox 360 this fall.

Monolith is after something ambitious with Condemned. After the swarms of Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles have come and thoroughly filled your cup with as much survival horror as you can take, Monolith hopes to bring you to a dark stretch of the imagination previously uncharted. First and foremost, in videogames, no games have explored in a realistic way the minds or actions of serial killers as convincingly as Condemned will. Monolith has done research on the subject matter, and the result is this slow-paced, atmospheric, and intense psychological thriller. The developer has hired surveyors to search out abandoned buildings, sketchy broken down complexes, empty warehouses, and other questionable areas to get a feel for the right moods, the right setting in which to place the investigations into the brutal crimes of a serial killer.

Placed into the shoes of Ethan Thomas, a member of the serial crime unit (SCU), you'll track down clues and encounter a wild spectrum of freaks, homeless people, and dangerously suicidal people on your path to finding and apprehending your subject. Your tool set is interesting. At all times you'll have a digital camera, video camera, and a PDA to communicate with your research assistant back at team HQ. Other than these instruments, you'll have no inventory or on-screen HUD. The digital camera is more than just a hand little cam; it and the video camera can track forensic materials that can be analyzed and send back to HQ to provide story-revealing tidbits to progress. You'll handle one weapon at a time and, with a wonderfully modern touch, you can hold a weapon and a flashlight simultaneously.

The game offers few if any cutscenes. Instead Monolith's Lead Designer Frank Rooke feels that conversing through a video-enabled PDA is a better way to keep players engaged and active, something that cutscenes can't just don't do, he explains. But the usefulness of the PDA not only constantly enables you to ring back to HQ, it adds a little humanity and "normal" human contact to break up the silent stretches of darkness, strange noises, and eerie environments. You'll encounter several other kinds of visual aids. When you come upon a puzzle, a room that's just itching for some help, Ethan has a CSI-type moment, as he imagines how a puzzle might be solved in a Flashback Video.

Condemned is a slow, distinct game based on methodical pacing and investigative exploration. You want to explore and examine everything, because you're unraveling a mystery. Rooke is keen to point out how the game evolves. You start out as a regular guy in an investigation, but you slowly descend down a path of insanity and disconnectedness that effects your actions and your perception of exactly what happens in the game.

The levels we were shown were part of a train station, replete with old-fashioned lobbies built on stone annd marble floors -- perfect for pure eerie silences quickly shattered by rustling enemies, falling boxes, or rusty metal sounds. The train station offered both wide open rooms and small to medium size rooms perfect for creating claustrophobic sensations. The game also features alleyways and rural areas, and it takes place in a large, fictitious area metropolitan area, inspired in a roundabout way by Seattle.

The action takes place through a combination of collecting clues, tracing data, trailing forensic data, and through melee and weapon-based combat. You'll start out with very little, and you'll see no inventory screen at all, increasing the sense of realism and raptness. Enemies appear every so often from hidden locations, giving you clues with sounds and occasional visuals to prepare you. Unlike few games before it, Condemned enables players to use their environment differently. You need a weapon? Grab a pipe from inside a crumbling wall and us it to belt an enemy across the face. Can't find a pipe? Break off a plank from a wooden bench. The nails on the one side will help a lot. You'll find all sorts of random and interesting weapons as you progress -- mannequin legs, sledge hammers, axes, tasters, planks with nails, shotguns, handguns, and more.